Be prepared to new Ultra Low Power Arduino Wireless Sensor Node

[StB]

Hi Charles,

I came randomly on your website and Whaouuu ! a lot of very good informations...
I'm just a DIYer, i know nothing about electronics, just a little bit of programming, and i 've learn a lot with your blog.
I'm looking forward for your UPLNode project and the WifiInfo -> i want to buy one !
Have a look on this : http://konashi.ux-xu.com/en/documents/#introduction-architecture
Worth a look i think.

Keep going and thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Stephane

[Charles]

Stephane,
thank for the feedback, I'm always happy when my job can help
Sounds very interesting BLE board, worth trying it
I've just received the WifInfo PCB, they should be in the store soon (I'm waiting for the regulators chip now)

[Michael Moebius]

Hello,

Is that your project? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/340271897/whisper-node

[franky1664]

Charles, do you see any solution to have a teleinfo transmitter running on batteries ? You seem to be addressing both topics: teleinfo and low power wireless module, but I didn't see any mention of putting both together. Did I miss something ?

[Charles]

@Michael-Moebius
No it's not mine, but seems interesting but they don't speak about any power optimization (hard and soft), so I'm wondering how it can achieve for years with a single battery (except if they read/transmit data not often).
Without schematics hard to check

@franky1664
Sorry even if it's doable, I'm not sure how long battery will work, since teleinfo is receiving in real time, this seems hard to do power optimization (even if we could make some trick for) and also we need to determine how often data is transmitted because this is really harvesting power. bit it's a good challenge

[Samuel]

Hi Charles,
You have done very thorough work with power optimization. I'm impressed!

I need this is kind of ultra low power wireless node for many applications and have done some designs, but I'm light years behind you After reading your blog, I think I'll use your board.

One battery related question:
Some of my nodes might consume quite a lot power, even if they are well optimized. I planned to use AAA rechargeable NIMHs on these nodes. Rechargeable NIMHs don't like if every bit of juice is squeezed out of them. I understood that your design will drain the batteries completely? Does your design allow to enable some sort of battery protection when using rechargeables, so that they won't be destroyed after few cycles?

[Charles]

@Samuel
thanks for you comment, good point for battery drain, there are no way to stop application working and drain battery juice, but there is a workaround :

The application is able to monitor battery level (read it's voltage), so you can do whatever you want with this values, do an alerts, send warning message from gateway, ...

Hope this help

Charles

[Samuel]

@Charles
Thanks for quick reply.

After studying more your design, I believe that there is no need for hw battery protection. The workaround you mentioned works well.
Right after the booster activation a sw battery protection can handle things. This consumes so little energy that it can run for long time and provides sufficient protection to rechargeables, even in very low charge situation.

Looking forward to your release!

[scalz]

@Samuel hello. sure it's fun to optimize power but nimh???
I don't know powerconsumption of your node but if your are using low power sensors, I hope the selfidscharge rate of your nimh does not break your lowpower goals.
Nimh selfdischarge could be more than your circuit consumption..imho nimh are not the best!
Bad quality is discharged in one year, others are 30%year (for a 1000mah, that would roughly give 400uA of selfdischarge just for the batt!). maybe good nimh are 15%. What I mean is if you try to get everything low power like says 20uA or for ulpnode (a lot lower), if nimh discharge at 100 or more uA...then attempts on lowpower part are useless! In this case, what matter? the circuit consumption or the selfdischarge? 20uA or 30uA circuit does not make any difference..the node will be discharged soon by its selfdischarge..

so it's not really low power optimized, far from lithium tech..but again I don't know your goals and maybe you already thought about this

[Samuel]

@scalz
You made a good point by comparing the self discharge rate of nimhs to circuit power consumption. There are also "low selfdischarge" nimhs on the market, for example panasonic/sanoy eneloops. Specs give them discharge rate of 5% per year.

I try to achieve 1-4 month battery life for the high consumption nodes. These nodes will spend most of the time sleeping, but when action is requested, they consume a lot in short time frame.

You still made a good point, that I didn't consider much before. I will re-evaluate what is actually relevant with power optimization. Thanks

[scalz]

I know about sanyo eneloops but I didn't know it was 5%, I was thinking these was 15%..perhaps 5% is the ideal case in the fridge ahah sorry lol I know these are one of the best nimh
No matter, I'm glad if I can help a little
Good luck in your projects and see you soon

[durvesh09]

Hey can u keep me in the loop ? I m also working on the same type of device ...
durveshbhole9@gmail.com

[Peter Van de Pol]

Dear Charles, I wonder how this story ended. It sounds impressive and just like the kind of board I am looking for. Can you give an update?